Today was one of those days I find hard and stressful. We had to be up and get somewhere on time, even if it was only 3km away and for 9am it was still a challenge.

All this urgency was caused by one thing; we didn't want to cycle into Dunedin! It's another city big enough to have a motorway going in, enough streets to get lost in and more than enough cars, trucks and buses to squash unaccustomed peddlers.

So we caught the Oamaru to Dunedin Shuttle, a big mini bus driven by a tartan hat wearing Bruce and frequented by us and a number of persons of advancing years.

We arrived in Dunedin a easy couple of hours later but probably having missed entertaining signs, nice view stops and other magic cycling moments and without that smug feeling on arrival at the hostel. We were though quiet content with our method of arrival - plenty more roads to cycle ahead.

The rest of the day was spent on practical things, the highlight of which was getting my new bank card, not often a high point in life but this was truly remarkable. In the bank it went like this;

"I've scratched my Eftpos (cash) card, so its does work can I have another one?" I said

"Do you have some ID?" said the cashier

"Yes" I handed over my driving license for her to study.

"OK, one moment" She said, went to a draw got a card out, entered its details on the computer, I then set my pin on a separate machine and she said

"Is that all for today?"

"Yes, Thank you" I replied.

Under 10mins in total, simple, access to money once more. I think UK banking may want to take note, I like security but actually being able to access you money is also a good thing!